a half," of 1290, 1335, and 2300 days: we are to enquire, in the first place, how these predictions were fulfilled. But since there is reason to believe that the four great crises connected with the four empires of prophecy, are related to each other by a law of times and seasons, we are further to consider whether any such law is visible in respect of the times of the three former empires. What manner of economy may connect all three with the fourth, I say again it is not for us to speculate. "Of that day and hour knoweth no man, no not the angels in heaven." Our concern is with the things revealed in the course of times past. Ὁ ἔχων νοῦν ψηφισάτω τὸν ἀριθμόν. § 378. In the first place, the Syrian crisis is connected with the Babylonian by an economy which belongs to the prophecy of the seventy weeks. For, if from the epoch of the seventy years of Jeremiah, 606 B. C., we reckon 62 x 7 434 years, we shall find them ending at 172 B. c., and 7 years more lead to 165 B. C. And if for the epoch of the seventy years and of the 434 years, we take that crisis of Jehoiakim's sin in burning the roll, which was in the 9th month of his 4th year, Jer. xxxvi. 1, 22, 23, the economy is probably exact; extending, namely, from Nov. 606 в. c. to 22 November 165 B. C., the Maccabean purification. And the latter moiety of the last 7 years will be the "time, times, and dividing of a time,” which are prophetically assigned to the persecution of the Syrian Antichrist'. 1 I mention this economy first, because I think it real, and that Daniel's prophecy was so worded as to suggest comfort to the faithful in that dire time of apostasy and persecution. They might say, "Our deliverance cannot be far distant, for the sixty-two weeks of Daniel, including the seventy years of Jeremiah, are come to an end." And the event confirmed their hopes, though Lot in the way they supposed. This is the answer to those commentators who in their interpretation of this prophecy are so far in the right as they take this, or somewhat like it, to lie within the scope of the prediction, but err in making this its whole and sole scope, agreeably to their hypothesis of the Maccabean origin of the Book of Daniel. This notion is abundantly refuted by the contents of the present chapter. It may serve to give the reader a clear conception of the kind of attacks upon the divine origin of the canonical prophecies, against which the facts urged in this chapter are specially useful, if I extract the substance of the interpretation lately given by Ewald, die Propheten der Alten Bunds, ii. 560 ff., which I do the rather, as Ewald's exegesis, while by its carnestness and almost devout enthusiasm, it rises far above the tone of ordinary scepticism, yet at the same time is based altogether on the hypothesis of a purely human uninspired origin of the whole volume of Scripture, and the whole system of § 379. Of the periods of days we will first consider that of the 2300 days, or, as it is in the Hebrew, "evening-mornings." Jewish and Christian belief. In this respect, it represents the most dangerous of those more refined forms of unbelief against which the Church has to contend in these last days. It is assumed, then, that the Book of Daniel was written by a devout Jew during the Antiochian persecution, with the intention of reviving the dejected spirits of the faithful. With this view, the writer personates Daniel, to whom he refers a number of predictions and symbolical stories, all alike pointing to the disastrous times of Antiochus Epiphanes. Thus, the four kingdoms, in the vision of the Image and of the Beasts, are those of the Chaldeans, the Medes, the Persians, the Grecians or possibly of the Assyrians, the Chaldeans, the MedoPersians, the Greeks. The visions of the Ram and Goat, and the Scripture of Truth plainly terminate in the crisis which then was. In the prophecy of the seventy weeks all the lines of the author's plan converge to a point: it fixes the time of the crisis. Now Jeremiah had foretold a period of seventy years of Chaldean servitude, at the end of which he doubtless represented to himself that Messiah would appear in His kingdom. That period came to an end, yet no Messiah appeared. The Maccabean personator of Daniel would remove this stumbling-block. Accordingly he represents Daniel, as pondering, in deep concern, at the close of that period, on the disappointment of the nation's hope, and then in answer to his prayer, receiving from an angel a revelation of the true import of the prediction. Namely, he is made to understand that the seventy years denote not so many years but weeks or sevens of years, at the end of which Messiah would appear. And the writer's meaning is, that the close of the seventy weeks, and the coming of Messiah, lay close at hand in the times when he wrote, i. e. during the Syrian persecution. It is true, he was much mistaken in thinking that 490 years from the beginning of the Babylonian Captivity were then run out, for the interval from 606 B. C. to 168 B. C. was but 438 years: but what need is there to suppose this Maccabean Jew any better informed as to the true chronology? He thought it was 490 years, and that is enough. In this way, then, he represents the order of the times in his pretended prediction: "From the going forth of the decree to rebuild Jerusalem," i. e. from the proImise made by Jeremiah of Jerusalem's future restoration and glory, "to an Anointed, a Prince," i. e. to Cyrus 66 are seven weeks," 49 years; not seventy years, as was more commonly supposed. "And during 62 weeks (more) the city shall be rebuilding, with street and conduit, but in straits of the times: and after the 62 weeks shall an Anointed be brought to nought, and have no man :" meaning Seleucus IV. Philopator, who came to a violent end, B. c. 176, leaving no child to succeed him. "And the people of the prince," i. e. Antiochus Epiphanes, "which shall come overflowing with his army, shall destroy city and temple yet even to the end of the war is fearful decision," i. e. from heaven at last. "He will make covenant with many, one week long :" Antiochus dealt leniently with the Jews during the first seven years of his reign: "And for the half week he will abolish sacrifice and oblation and that, because of the fearful height of abominations (viz. of our sins), but until destruction and decision be poured forth upon that fearful" (pile of abominations). This last half week is supernumerary to the seventy, and is the identical period marked in the other prophecies of this book. "In short, it is the actual now of the author, the darkly In the vision of the Ram and He-goat, which manifestly relates in its primary sense to the empire of the Greeks, it was foreshown that a king of that empire should prosper against the holy people, and cause the daily sacrifice to cease for a time. Dan. viii. 11. "Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unt othat certain saint [or, wonderful numberer, or numberer of secrets. Heb. Palmoni. Marg.] which spake, How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice and the transgression of desolation to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot? And he said unto me, Unto 2300 days; [Heb. evening-morning]; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed [Heb. justified].” There seem to be but two events in the history of the Maccabees which can be regarded as constituting the terminus ad quem denoted by the words, "the sanctuary shall be cleansed," louring time when all abominations and calamities had come to such a height that it seemed as though Messiah could not possibly delay his coming; the 1290 days which the faithful must patiently endure unto the end, xii. 11, or (somewhat to enlarge this prophetical round number for 3 years) the 1335 days, xii. 12, or (somewhat shortened) the 2300 days and nights, i. e. 1150 days, viii. 14 (which, as being the least, is mentioned first, and after it the numbers rise to 3 years, 1290 days, 1335 days, as though the author would hint that men must not faint if the time of waiting were prolonged). And when it is considered that the climax of abominations, the idol in the Temple, according to 1 Macc. i. 54, was set up just two years after the first seven, one perceives the emphasis of the circumlocution by which the 3 years are given as 2+1+1, vii. 25. xii. 7." [I scarcely need pause to remark that the order is 1+2+, and that the idol was set up B. c. 168, at most 8 years after Antiochus's accession, not nine as Ewald supposes]. "Nothing can be plainer, then, than that the book was written B. c. 167-6. The end of Antiochus is announced as near and certain, yet in every part of the book, his overthrow, with which Messiah's advent coincides, appears as futurity and pure foreboding. Even after the longest series in which the past deeds of the tyrant are accurately described, xi. 21-45, the rumours which reached Antiochus of disturbances in the East (Parthia) and North (Armenia), are the last actual occurrences down to the time of the composition of the book. Now if Antiochus had been already dead, and especially if the particulars of the very remarkable manner of his end had been known, the line between the disguised and the actual future would certainly have been drawn elsewhere, and the tenour of that part which is pure foreboding would have been very different. It is likely, however, that the favourable reception which this book speedily obtained was very much aided by the circumstance" [mere accident, of course] "that Antiochus came to his end at the time predicted-not indeed exactly at the close of the given number of days, for that mattered not, since the author himself has stated the number sometimes a little higher, sometimes a little lower, but at all events not far wide of the mark." or, "justified." These are, the Maccabean dedication, 25 Kasleu = 22 November 165 B. c., and the victory over Nicanor, 13 Adar B. c. 1615 March (§ 206). This latter event constitutes so momentous a crisis of the history, that at this point the author of the Second Book of Maccabees brought his narrative to a close with the remark that from this day forth "the city was made strong by the Hebrews." "And they all blessed the Lord, saying, Blessed be He who hath kept His place undefiled. And they decreed that this should be a marked day for ever." 2 Mac. xv. 1 Mac. vii. Comp. Josephus Ant. x. 12. 5. It is noted that the day in question was ἡ πρὸ τῆς Μαρδοχαϊκής nuépas, the day before the anniversary of the deliverance under Esther and Mordecai. On the former supposition, 2300 days, reckoned back from 22 November 165, lead up to 7 August B. c. 171, which is not a marked date of the history. But 2300 days, reckoned back from 5 March 161, do lead to a very important crisis, no other, indeed, than the profanation itself; for, from 17 November 168 to 5 March 161, are just 2300 days, and 17 November is but 8 days before the day of the profanation, 25 Kasleu 168 25 November. That is, if we reckon 2300 days from the very day of the profanation, they terminate 13 March, B. c. 161, eight days after the victory over Nicanor. = But the same conjuncture is memorable on another account also. For, after the victory, Judas Maccabæus entered into a treaty of alliance offensive and defensive with Rome: the first compact the Jews had ever made with that fateful nation. And as the rise of Antiochus was to be "in the latter times of the empire of the Greeks," Dan. viii. 23, it may be surmised that at this conjuncture "the times" of the second empire came to a close, and the Third Empire, in the eye of prophecy, began to run its course'. § 380. The other periods occur in the prophecy called the Scripture of Truth, Dan. xi. xii., which is manifestly the ex 1 So Winer, (Real-lex. Römer.) who, as a rationalist, had of course no thought of illustrating prophecy. "With the Jews, the Romans first came into political contact by a league which they made with Judas Maccabæus...renewed by Jonathan, and by Simon. Thus the Jews attained to the perilous honour of being called Amici et Socii of the Roman people." pansion of the vision of the Ram and He-goat, and relates to the times of the Grecian empire, yet with a further reference to the times of the Fourth Empire and the last Antichrist. "He held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, that [to the end of these wonders] shall be a time, times, and an half: and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished... And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be 1290 days. Blessed is he that waiteth and cometh to the 1335 days." Of the period described as a time, times, and a half, I shall speak presently. If the term of 1290 days is to be measured from the cessation of the daily sacrifice, it must terminate at or after the time of the Maccabean dedication. Now the dedication took place 25 Kasleu 22 November 165 B. C., exactly 3 Jewish years (about 1093 days), as the history relates, after the final profanation or setting up of the idol, the abomination of desolation. This period therefore seems to end at some critical event after the dedication. = It has been shown in its place (§ 204), that the rage of Antiochus against the Jews, after his expulsion from Egypt (Dan. xi. 30), began July or August B. c. 168. Hence to the dedication is "a period of time, times, and the dividing of a time," if we understand by that expression a period of 3 years with part of a fourth. As the history does not express the exact time at which the daily sacrifice ceased, which may have been before the return of Antiochus from Egypt, it is possible that the interval between that event and the dedication, i. e. the time during which the Temple was defiled or the daily sacrifice ceased, may have been exactly 1290 days. If so, it began 15 May 168. This, however, is not an historical date. It seems more likely that the 1290 days end after the "time, times, and a half:" i.e. at some signal victory of the Maccabees. This point we must leave undetermined. The following consideration will serve, I think, to adjust the other periods with great precision. § 381. If from the 5th March B. c. 161, we count back a period of 7 x73 days, or 2401 days, we shall find it begin 8 August 168 and this date coincides as nearly as possible with the |